Circumstances of DisappearanceNancy Leichner and Pamela Nater disappeared from a skin diving, club picnic on Sunday, October 2, 1966. The picnic was in the Alexander Springs Recreation Area of the Ocala National Forest in Lake County, Florida. They planned to scuba dive, canoe and picnic.

Pam Nater was a 1964 graduate of Clearwater High; Nancy Leichner was a 1963 graduate of Largo High. Pam was a nurse at Morton Plant Hospital; Nancy worked for Honeywell. They had met each other just once before. The common thread was their respective boyfriends, who were diving friends.

The young women decided the 72-degree water in the spring was too cold and didn't go in. So as their boyfriends dived and took a canoe ride, the women began packing to go home. About 16.00, as the Aquaholics gathered to leave, the boyfriends began searching for them. They found Nancy's prescription glasses and both women's purses and shoes at a picnic table, but no trace of either woman.

Nancy was last seen on a nearby nature trail, a winding path that follows the Alexander Spring Creek. That was shortly before 12:30. Pam was last seen about an hour later a short distance from the trail.

Cold-case investigators in Lake County has concluded that a convicted murderer and former law-enforcement officer, long since dead, had killed Leichner, and Pamela Nater.
Investigators said that they have discovered evidence, including a jail house confession and eyewitness accounts, that points to Gerard J. Schaefer as the person who abducted and killed the two young women.
During his incarceration, Schaefer told a fellow inmate at Avon Park Correctional Facility, that he took Leichner and Nater by gun and knife point at Alexander Springs park and killed them. The inmate kept detailed notes of his conversations, which he turned over to a corrections officer.
In 1995, a fellow inmate at Florida State Prison stabbed Schaefer to death.

InvestigatorsIf you have any information concerning this case, please contact:

Lake County Sheriff's Office
352-343-9529

Agency Case Number: 66-10-0000

NCIC Number: M-357882188Please refer to this number when contacting any agency with information regarding this case.